The next evening, at the
High Soritz bar, the music was playing loudly, the lights dimmed and bodies
swaying with the music.
Selena stepped into the
bar, pulling her coat tighter. This wasn't her kind of space, Zane had asked to
meet and talk, something didn't feel right but he was still her little brother,
the only one who at least treated her a bit differently.
She spotted Zane in the
back booth, hoodie on again, nursing a half-empty glass. He looked at her
nervously with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
She sat across from
him.
You wanted to talk", she
asked softly.
She looked around her
surroundings like she was scanning for something.
"Yeah. Yeah. I just… I've
been thinking. About what you said at dinner." He stammered, not looking her in
the eyes.
She sensed something was
wrong, but she brushed it off, Zane was just like that.
"Zane, if this is about
the money, I told you I can't…"
"No. No, it's not about
that." He laughed nervously as he gulped the last drink in his glass, "I just
missed you, that's all."
That alone should've
tipped her off. He never missed her.
She looked at him
carefully. "You okay?"
He hesitated.
"You'll be fine," he
whispered, but it wasn't to her… it was to himself.
Before she could ask
again, two burly-looking men in dark coats appeared at the end of the booth.
"Miss Miller," one of them
said, smiling too politely. "We'd like to have a word."
She looked at them, then
back at Zane…and her blood ran cold.
"Zane?"
He didn't look at her. He
couldn't.
The taller man reached
out.
"Please don't make this
difficult for either of us, Miss Miller."
Selena stood, but the
other man blocked her path.
"What the hell is this?"
she hissed. "Zane, what the fuck did you do?" She cursed angrily.
Calm down Miss, our boss
just wants to talk." One of the men said to Selena gripping her arm.
"Let go of me!" she
snapped, struggling, but quietly aware of the eyes in the room.
Zane finally met her eyes.
"I'm sorry Sel," he said,
voice breaking. "I didn't have a choice."
And in that moment, Selena
realized something worse than betrayal.
He truly believed that.
In the shadows just above
in the VIP booth, a cold-looking man had just witnessed what had happened.
Damian Montavlo had been
invited by his friends for a drink at the bar, so many beauties had tried to
get close but when they saw his expression, they all fled in fear.
"Come on Damian, you're
scaring all the beauties away", Asher Lockwood, Damian's childhood friend
replied to him.
Damian didn't reply, not
caring a bit for what was going on. He casually sipped on his glass of scotch.
The man was beautiful,
everything about his features was perfect. His eyes were silver, cold. One
glance from him made the ladies squirm in their seats. His leg was crossed at
the ankle on top of the other, even in such a place, his presence was quite domineering.
He wasn't the kind of man who needed to announce himself.
"He has the looks of a
god", one lady by the side whispered to her friend as they chuckled softly,
admiring the looks of the beautiful man but not daring to get close.
He heard them but chose to
ignore. Those words were nothing he hadn't heard before. His eyes scanned
across the room like a hawk looking for its new prey.
He noticed the woman in a
brown coat walk in, his gaze lingered on her, like he had found his prey. She
walked over to the back booth sitting across from a guy. She wasn't dressed for
the moment so he assumed she was just meeting him.
He noticed her eyes
scanning the room like someone who wasn't used to such a space. Their eyes met
shortly, but she looked past like she hadn't noticed him at all. He was amused.
He kept looking, admiring
her good looks from the shadows. The dim light fixated on her face as if to
announce her beauty.
Suddenly he noticed some
men coming from behind and surrounding the table, his eyes squinted in a bit of
annoyance. He noticed the boy's face for the first time as he pulled his hoodie
down, his eyes full of guilt, his lips mouthing "I'm sorry…. I didn't have a
choice".
He couldn't help but
notice the calm but angry look on the woman's face, a bit of disappointment but
nothing that showed fear.
"What are you looking at?"
Asher noticing Damian's persistent gaze at a particular area, chimed in, he
noticed a woman in a brown coat surrounded by three burly-looking men.
They soon walked away, one
man ahead and the woman in the middle with the other two men at the back
guarding her like she was going to run away.
Asher turned back to look
at Damian, knowing his friend's thoughts he quickly advised him even though he
knew he wouldn't listen.
"Don't get involved
Damian," he sipped on his drink, turning away to face the ladies.
Damian's eyes followed
Selena until she was completely out of sight.
"Who said I wanted to get
involved?" He asked Asher, not looking him in the eyes as he gulped down the
remaining scotch in his glass.
"The look in your eyes
says it all, Young Master Gontavlo." He only called him that when it was
getting serious.
Damian immediately stood
up, straightening the imaginary creases on his suit. He looked at Asher and
gave a cold, scary but reassuring smile.
"I'm just going to check
it out".
"Where's he going?" Luca,
another one of Damian's peers quickly asked Asher, as he noticed Damian
striding out.
"Probably to cause
trouble", Asher shrugged his shoulders without a care in the world, beckoning
on some beauties who didn't dare approach their table due to Damian's presence.